After an afternoon swimming with pink dolphins in the cola-coloured waters of the Amazon, spending the evening in a movie theatre may not seem all that thrilling. Unless you're "in the business" or a serious film nut, jetting to another continent to watch films is counterintuitive. Surely that's why airlines have all those kilometre-killing movies on board. Why travel to sit in the dark?
But it's something else to follow your day in the Amazon by watching John Boorman's classic The Emerald Forest, shot in the rain forest here. The fragility of the jungle is tangible.
The Brazilian state of Amazonas hosted its own film festival this month in an attempt to draw tourists and deepen their experience. It's an idea that has taken off around the globe, with a number of resort areas mounting festivals during the shoulder seasons.
That includes Maui, Marrakesh, Deauville, France and Whistler, which hosts its event in early December. Like most winter destinations, the home of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games wants you to associate it with more than snow. "We're an all-season resort," Tourism Whistler's Breton Murphy says, "so we look to expand the product offering particularly in arts and culture. We look at it as event tourism."
And it's paying off: Whistler bookings are up significantly in what was once a low period before the peak months of January to March. And no wonder. While ordinary film festivals can be risky, this sort of event offers insurance: If you don't pick great films, you can still enjoy the destination while avoiding the crowds.
MARRAKESH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
November is the beginning of the rainy season in coastal north Africa, and Morocco's third city needed something to draw visitors during the inclement weather. So King Mohamed VI decreed that a film festival should be brought into existence. Today, the event is run by Public Système Cinéma, a French company that specializes in creating festivals.
Film is a natural here: Marrakesh has a long cinematic history, both as the centre of local production and as the geographic star of productions ranging from Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much to The Mummy, not to mention one of the finer episodes of the British TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous.
The focal point of the event is the city's famed Jemaa El Fna, a vast square where free open-air screenings are held each evening. Luminaries in attendance in past years have included directors Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola and David Lynch and stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Connery. This year, director Barry Levinson heads the jury that will judge a selection of international titles. The festival will pay tribute to actresses Sigourney Weaver and Michelle ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) Yeoh.
Also at this year's event: retrospectives on 40 years of British cinema and 50 years of Moroccan cinema, and on Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Joseph Losey. Director Hugh Hudson will present a master class at the Marrakesh Graduate School of Visual Arts - with limited free tickets available to the public.
Runs until Nov. 22. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.festivalmarrakech.info.
WHISTLER FILM FESTIVAL
After an exhausting day on the slopes, the only dark venues with obvious appeal are a bar or a bedroom. Yet this industry-focused film festival has been expanding since its launch in 2002: This year it features 92 films. Guests include Donald Sutherland, who will head the jury, as well as Canadian filmmakers Patricia Rozema (I've Heard The Mermaids Singing) and Sturla Gunnarson.
The opening film is Michael McGowan's One Week and the closing title is Bruce McDonald's Pontypool.
The snow hits the celluloid at a celebrity ski challenge on Dec. 6. But don't look for Rozema on the slopes; she says her specialty is luge.
Dec. 4-7; packages including two nights' accommodation and two festival passes are $119 to $420, double occupancy. Filmmaker Forum packages are also available. For more information, visit http://www.whistlerfilmfestival.com.
DEAUVILLE FESTIVAL
DU CINEMA AMERICAIN
The sleepy chic Normandy resort town of Deauville and its slightly down-market neighbour Trouville were always in a September stupor following August's tourism glut. Thirty-five years ago, French PR specialist Lionel Chouchan was asked by the city to help drum up some business. He came up with the idea of a film festival devoted to American films.
Today, the festival is the laid-back opposite of Cannes, its Mediterranean peer - a reflection of its cooler region. A stroll along the boardwalk is
rivalled by the stroll toward the English Channel; at low tide, it takes 20 minutes to walk from the beach to the water. Don't be surprised to see a festivalgoer strolling the sands barefoot.
In attendance this year were Kevin Spacey, Spike Lee, Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris, a bit of a downturn from 2007 when George Clooney and Brad Pitt were wandering the streets. If American cinema doesn't suit your fancy, Chouchan's company Public Système Cinéma also runs the Deauville Asian Film Festival in March.
Sept. 5 - 14, 2009. Single day pass $68; all-access pass $227. http://www.festival-deauville.com. MAUI FILM FESTIVAL
The jokey name "Sanddance" both overstates and understates the place of the Maui festival in the pantheon of international film festivals. Sundance is loaded with world premieres; Maui is not. But Maui is in Maui and there is, in fact, an actual dance party on the beach.
This year's edition of the extremely relaxed event featured appearances from former Bond Pierce Brosnan, Dennis Quaid, Virginia Madsen of Sideways fame and Felicity Huffman. Another star, the sun, powers more than the festival-goers' tans: Energy collected through a solar array drives the projection equipment in all four of the outdoor screening venues.
Los Angeles-based Jeremy Kay, a reporter for the magazine Screen International and a man who knows from film festivals, thinks there is no event like it for sheer beauty. "It's ridiculously lavish," he says.
Headquartered between two ridiculously opulent resorts, the Four Seasons Resort Wailea and the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa, it can also expensive. But money doesn't seem to be an object: According to a Four Seasons spokesperson,
occupancy at the 2008 festival was just shy of 100 per cent. Anyway, if you find somewhere more affordable to stay, the festival itself is a bargain.
June 17-21, 2009. Single tickets $12; all-access Shooting Star pass $183. http://www.mauifilmfestival.com.
AMAZONAS FILM FESTIVAL
Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, is not a beautiful city. But its location at the edge of the deep Amazon makes it your only gateway to the jungle. And it contains a truly remarkable and grandiose building: the Renaissance-style Teatro Amazonas, a 19th-century opera house constructed when the city was fabulously enriched as the centre of the global rubber trade. This jewel box is the focal point of the Amazonas Film Festival, an event designed by Public Système Cinéma to bring celebrity rainmakers to the rain forest - like Emerald Forest director John Boorman, who presided over the jury last year.
This year's jury president is British director Alan Parker, joined by Canada's own Neve Campbell as well as Parker Posey. Next year will certainly bring similar wattage. All films are shown with Portuguese and English subtitles.
November 2009. Admission is free; tickets are first come, first served. For more information, visit http://www.amazonasfilmfestival.com.